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I No. 265 



SHALL CIVILIZATION SURVIVE? 



AN ADDRESS 

ON THE VITAL ISSUES INVOLVED IN THIS WAR, 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF BRISTOL. 

R. I.. AT THEIR CELEBRATION ON INDEPENDENCE 

DAY JULY 4, 1918 



By 
HON. LE BARON B. COLT 

U. S. SENATOR FROM RHODE ISLAND 






PRESENTED BY MR. KENYON 
July 10, 1918.— Ordered to be printed 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1918 



3l 6f ^* 
OCT 15 IS^S 



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SHALL CIVILIZATION SURVIVE? 



Fellow Citizens : On this Fourth of July we find ourselves raised 
ahove our ordinary lives with one dominant and controlling purpose 
in our minds and hearts — the winning of the war. We are living in 
an atmosphere of patriotism, of devotion to duty, of self-sacrifice. 
We are sending a milhon of our sons across the seas, to be followed 
by millions more, to fight, and, if need be, to die for freedom. We are 
revealing to the world the spirit of a great democracy in a supreme 
crisis. It is the awakened soul of America which will win this war. 

Four years ago Germany plunged the world into a conflict unparal- 
leled in its magnitude, its carnage, and its horrors. If Germany 
should win this war her mad ambition would be realized and the 
earth would be ruled by a tyrant State. The military domination of 
Germany must be destroyed by crushing her army or by an internal 
revolution if modern civilization is to survive. Germany must be 
defeated and defeated now. There is no other alternative. A 
German victory, a compromise, an inconclusive peace to be followed 
by another war, would be suicide. ''Beat Germany this time, for if 
you do not, the next time she will beat you," is a true saying. 

THE PARAMOUNT ISSUE, 

This is no European conflict. It is a gigantic struggle between 
two world systems. "There is more at stake," says Viscount Grey, 
"than the existence of individual States or empires or the fate of 
continents." The paramount issue in this war is whether the civili- 
zation of Europe and America, which is fast spreading over the globe, 
shall continue or be supplanted by an old and dead civilization. The 
so-called civilization of Germany is the resurrection of a barbaric 
past. There is notliing new in the German doctrine of power en- 
forced by the practices of the jungle, which is the cornerstone of 

3 



4 SHALL CIVILIZATION SUEVIVE ? 

German kultur and civilization. There is nothing new in autocracy 
or mihtary despotism. There is nothing new in the bhnd worship of 
a soidless mechanism called the State, controlled by a mihtary caste. 
There is nothing new in a nation seeking the lordship of the earth by 
the subjugation of other States and the imposition of her own civili- 
zation upon the conquered. These are the things which mankind 
has been battling against for thousands of years; and the question 
to be finally settled in this war is whether mankind wiU submit to 
the abandonment of what it has achieved in its long upward march 
from barbarism. 

THE KAISER SPIRIT. 

On succeeding to the throne in 1888 the Kaiser said: "The eyes of 
my ancestors are looking down upon me from the other world, and 
one day I shall have to render to them an account both of the glory 
and of the honor of the army." Again, in 1900, he said: "I will 
never rest until I have raised my navy to a position similar to that 
occupied by my army. The trident must be in our hands." The 
Kaiser is here giving expression to the military spirit, the spirit of 
"blood and iron," which Germany inherited from Prussia and 
Frederick the Great, and which established the German Empire in 
1871. It is this spirit which nas since ruled Germany and which 
was the cause of the present war; and it is this spirit which must be 
destroyed or so broken that it will no longer be a menace to the 
world. 

A few days ago the Kaiser said that this is a war between German 
principles and Anglo-Saxon principles. Speaking more accurately 
he should have said that it is a war between German principles and 
the principles of modern civilization. We need not be told what 
German principles are. We have an object lesson of their meaning 
in this war and we have already summarized them. We may well, 
however, on this day call attention to the principles for which four- 
fifths of the world are now fighting. 

When we say that this is a war to make the world safe for democ- 
racy and to keep it safe by a league of nations, or that this is a war 
to save civilization, we are using general and apt expressions, but 
they do not convey clearly to the mind either the principles for which 
we are fighting or the meaning of those principles. 



SHALL CIVILIZATION SURVIVE? 5 

PRINCIPLES AT STAKE. 

We are fighting for the great principles of law and liberty. By law 
we mean not the wiU of a master but the expression of the general 
wUl and conscience of the community. We mean something which 
is not fixed, but which changes as the moral sense of the community 
advances in its upward march to a higher civilization. We mean, 
since law is the expression of the organized wiU and conscience of the 
community, that the members of the community are not only under 
obligations to obey the law and to help enforce it, but also that they 
have the right to participate in the making of the laws. 

By liberty we mean the right to be free from the dictation of 
arbitrary power and the right to share in the making of the laws. 
We also mean the enjoyment of all those personal rights which in 
America are secured to the individual by our organic law. Law 
and liberty are not contradictory. They are interdependent and 
supplement each other. Liberty prevents law from becoming fixed, 
and law prevents liberty from degenerating into license. This con- 
ception of liberty and this conception of law lie at the foundation 
of democracy and self-government, and constitute what has been 
called the very essence of modern civilization. It is manifest that 
law and liberty could not long survive if the German doctrine of 
power and the German theory of the State should dominate the 
world. Hence, this war is the final struggle to save Hberty and 
self-government. 

OTHER GREAT PRINCIPLES. 

There are two other great principles for which we are fighting — the 
principle of nationality and the principle of internationalism. 

By nationality we mean the right of members of a group of peo- 
ple to link themselves together and form a nation. We mean the 
right of such nation to imion, freedom, and independence. We 
mean the right of such nation to determine its own destiny. We 
mean also the recognition that the movement of mankind toward 
nationality represents a dominant and irresistible impulse, and that 
this impulse is the corner stone of democracy and self-government. 
And, in this connection, it is important to point out what deter- 
mines nationality. It does not appear to be based on race, or lan- 
guage, or rehgion, or geographical boundaries, although one or more 



6 SHALL CIVILIZATION SURVIVE? 

of these elements may enter into it. It may be said to be a state 
of mind having its root in the idea of brotherhood, kinship, or fam- 
ily. There can be no question, however, that common traditions, 
common ideas, and common struggles for liberty are potent factors 
in molding a people into a nation. The example of Switzerland 
shows that nationality is not based on race, language, or religion, 
and the same is true of the United States. Belgium still lives, 
although her territory has been conquered, her towns destroyed, her 
population deported, and her Government overthrown. In Alsace- 
Lorraine, France made Frenchmen out of Germans by conferring upon 
the people the liberty and privileges of French institutions. And in 
the United States these same influences are molding all races into one 
nation. Germany has never recognized this principle of nationality 
and the same is true of Austria and Turkey. The German doctrine 
of power and the German ambition for world supremacy are destruc- 
tive of this principle, and this war is the last great struggle to pre- 
serve it. 

THE LAW OF NATIONS. 

By internationalism we mean the extension of the principles of 
law and liberty to the international field. We mean that nations 
are bound to observe the great body of rules known as the law of 
nations, and to uphold the sanctity of treaties. We mean that 
every nation should be protected in the enjoyment of its liberty and 
independence and in the determination of its own destiny. We mean 
the settlement of disputes between nations by some form of arbitra- 
tion and without recourse to war. We mean that nations in their 
interstate relations shall not violate the great principles of humanity. 
We mean the cooperation of free nations to protect their common 
interests and to prevent war; and, finally, we mean the creation of 
a new world order based upon the principle of federation. 

The greatest foe to internationalism is German militarism. It is 
hostile to the reign of law and the reign of liberty in international 
affairs. It repudiates international obligations and the sanctity of 
treaties. It denies the claims of small nations to be free and inde- 
pendent. It has never favored arbitration. It is hostile to the 
cooperation of nations in the interest of the common welfare and a 
lasting peace. A new world order among the family of nations can 
never be created if Germany should be victorious in tliis war. 



SHALL CIVILIZATION SURVIVE? 7 

Finally, we are fighting for the great principles of humanity which 
Christianity teaches and which constitute the highest and most 
characteristic feature of modern civilization. Nothing has so shocked 
the world as the ruthless violation by Germany of these principles. 
This war has demonstrated that the principles of humanity are not 
permitted to stand in the way of German militarism and of German 
ambition for world supremacy. 

Such are the principles which are at stake in this great war. In a 
word, this is a war to save the fundamental ideals of Christian civili- 
zation. 

PRACTICAL PROBLEMS. 

In the preservation of these ideals and principles we are confronted 
with three practical problems of transcendant importance. First, we 
must win this war and destroy militarism; second, we must reach an 
agreement upon the terms of peace; and, third, we must form a new 
league of free nations which will insure the future peace of the world. 
In the solution of these problems I need not remind you that America 
is charged wath higher responsibilities than ever fell to any nation in 
the annals of mankind. 

Fellow citizens, to-day we are celebrating a new Fourth of July. 
This day has become the Independence Day of all free nations — the 
birthday of a world democracy. On this day the soldiers and sailors 
of our allies are marching in the parades as a visible expression of the 
unity of the free nations of the world in this great struggle for liberty 
and self-government. On this day millions of our foreign born, rep- 
resenting 30 nationalities, are joining in these exercises to bear witness 
that they are first of all Americans and loyally supporting this 
country and the cause of democracy in this war. 

May the inspiration which we derive from this Fourth of July serve 
to impress upon us more deeply the great issues at stake in this war, 
and that our one supreme duty in this critical hour, when the fate of 
mankind hangs in the balance, is to win the war. 

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